yeah that's a sad point about Ben's character. I'm going on about 35 years of memory since i last saw it and then just looked up a few quotes on rotten tomatoes. I like the dilemma facing engineers working on military weapons. Then also the theme around AI and those implications.
Yeah it's all good except for that, and definitely touches on some pretty cutting edge concerns as you mention.
I didn't remember the Ben stuff either. I hadn't seen it since I guess age of 10? Put it on for the kids to watch with them a couple months ago and I spent most of it praying that Ben wasn't the thing they'd remember. If you have a reason to watch it again then I'd do so, it's amazing how uncomfortable it'll make you feel with modern eyes!
I think the filmmakers recognized how crap that was anyway, he's barely in it and does nothing for the story.
He's the main character in the sequel though. So while he was Steve Guttenberg's comic sidekick in the first movie, I don't think we can deduce that the filmmakers thought Fisher Stevens's character was "crap".
We're just going to have to accept that we were a bit tone-deaf back then. No one blinked twice at Fisher Stevens dipped in bronzer and doing his best Ghandi impression.
The sad thing is that I do like both movies. I was at the right age for that whole quirky robot comes alive schtick to really hit. I try to rationalize it by saying that Ben isn't really a negative portrayal. The dude is smart, witty, kind, and all around a good dude.
